Roman 12:1-2

"Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." Romans 12:1-2

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Jesus died on Friday, the afternoon before the Sabbath began. The sky went dark and He said, "It is finished." By this we know our sins are forgiven.

Tomorrow we celebrate His resurrection and the promise of our own. One day we, too, will be holy and perfected, standing before God's throne.

But today....

Today is Saturday.

The day the tomb was not empty. The day Jesus' body was in its shroud in the hollowed out rock.

The day our sins were forgiven but glory had not yet come.

And that is where we are living. In Saturday. We have the promise of glory, but we are still waiting. We look at our lives and wonder when we will ever get it together. We look at the world around us and cry out over the pain and anguish and death.

Romans 7: 14-24

For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good.So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?

Praise the Lord! Sunday is coming!

Romans 7: 25- 8: 3

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh

Or, the way I memorized vs. 3: For what the law was powerless to do, in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did!